Souderton Girls Take Aim At High-scoring Cheltenham

March 02, 1988|by JEFF SCHULER, The Morning Call

Can Souderton do it again?

The Big Red raised a few eyebrows last weekend by slowing down run-and-gun Bensalem en route to a 51-37 win over the highly-touted Tigers in the opening round of the District 1 4-A girls basketball tournament.

Now, the Indians have a chance to take center stage again when they travel to Cheltenham at 7:30 tonight to take on the fourth-seeded Panthers in a second-round battle.

The winner of this Liberty Division matchup gets a berth in this weekend's quarterfinals on a neutral court against the survivor of last night's Quakertown-Downingtown matchup.

"The win over Bensalem was very satisfying," said the Indians' Bucky Price, who has coached Souderton to a 10-12 mark in his return to the bench after a five-year hiatus. "I had them scouted, and they did everything true to form; when I looked at them, they were a run and gun club, and we just slowed them down to a walk. Tonight, we have to do the same thing."

Cheltenham, which squeaked by Chester 55-53 in the opening round, is aware of the Indians' ability tocontrol the flow of the game. In two games against the 22-2 Panthers, Souderton has limited its high-scoring opponents to a total of 81 points - an average well below their season's mark. What's more, the Big Red is also responsible for one those two marks in Cheltenham's loss column, a season-ending 44-39 win on the Panthers floor that Price says sent his club into the playoffs on the right foot.

"We felt really good coming off that game," Price recalled. "As we began to play these teams on even terms, we began to get more confidence, and that's when we started to be successful.

"Right now, we're winning with fundamentals," added Price. "We haven't scrimmaged more than a dozen times this year. Take (Monday's) practice. We worked on the little things that win basketball games, because that's what brought the kids this far, and good things have happened because of the hard work they put in."

With the results of the first two Cheltenham games in his mind (the Panthers took a 42-40 win back in January on the Indians' court), Price is optimistic that his team will be able to repeat its earlier performances.

"We've held people down all year," the coach observed. "Cheltenham's a high-scoring team, but we haven't let anyone do that to us all year."

Souderton has used two strategies against Cheltenham's Andrea Visco (23 ppg). In the first game, Souderton concentrated on Visco while her teammates ran wild in the two-point win. In the second game, Price told his club to try to limit Visco's teammates. Visco scored 25, but her teammates managed just 14 and Souderton won by five.

"We can afford to give one player 25 - if we control the rest of them," Price said.

Sandy Wismer drew praise for her 26 points in Souderton's win over Bensalem. But Price insists the BigRed success has been a team effort.

"Sandy's been consistent all year," he said, "but it's been a six-girl effort all year. Jocie Ott hasn't scored a point in the last two games, but she's done a tremendous job of setting people up. She's got to control our offense, and she's got to settle everyone down when things get out of hand. So far, she's done that very well."

Joining those two in the lineup have been 5-9 Toni Wenger, 5-7 Tanya Kogel, and junior Julie Kratz.